xakara

Hello Lovelies,

The hardest part out Friday's Crush of the Week, isn't picking who will get the coveted spot, but finding the photos that capture the essence of why they were crush-worthy to me in a given moment. Sometime I put off options for weeks, others have been bumped indefinitely, because I can't find just that right moment on film to bring you what I saw in them.

Then of course there is the struggle to define whether someone qualifies as an actor crush or character and whether character crushes should get their own day or be mixed in as one crush day for everything. And if they get mixed in then am I limited to only pictures of the character from whatever show or movie that captured me or do I stay with my minimum of four pics regardless of where they're from? And what kind of pictures to go with? Serious? Funny? Weird? Risque?

What about the time constraints? Do I meander through their entire career? Do I keep it short and current to whatever they're doing now? Should I just slap up a photo and a sentence and be done to go on to whatever else awaits me for the night? (Yeah, like that would work). Which direction is best?

See, you didn't know so much went into them did you? But I do all of this for you. Well, I also do it for me as a way to spread my current crush to countless others until my way of thinking and viewing the world dominates your lives and my benevolent dictatorship can begin in earnest. But mostly, I do it for all of you. (And there might be a bit of OCD pickiness that drives me but no need to go into that).

Now as this my long way of telling you that there won't be a chosen crush this week because of all that goes into it and not finding pictures that met my criteria? Yes. But then I found a fourth picture and solved the whole issue; which makes this more of a benign venting that more photographers don't take the pictures I want and make them easily available to me. :) Now that's I've vented it's on to the viewing.

Whether you first found him digging a Velvet Goldmine, tucked in with him snugly for A Midsummer's Night Dream, felt crazily patriotic at his side in America Psycho, or watched him endure under a Reign of Fire; there has always been something about him that let us know he'd go far. Yes, Kittens, this Friday's Crush of the Week is Christian Bale.

The 2002 release Reign of Fire was Christian's first action role, starring opposite Matthew McConaughey. Despite its failure to bring home box office gold, it was the first film to place Christian firmly in the mind of audiences. Unfortunately it was not firmly enough to save his other 2002 release, Equilibrium. Lacking a wide release base and bearing the unfortunate tagline "Forget about The Matrix", which alienated its target audience, it was DVD that would save this film and promote it to cult status as one of the best examples of gun-porn out there.

Equilibrium's Grammaton Cleric John Preston is high on my list of character crushes and was a role that showed the range of emotion Christian's face can convey with the smallest changes.

2004 saw the extreme physical changes Christian was willing to go through in The Machinist. It was his frail, deathly, build in that film which made his transformation for 2005's wildly successful Batman Begins so incredibly impressive.

I could go on to talk about The Prestige with prior Crush of the Week Hugh Jackman, or touch on 3:10 to Yuma with Russell Crowe, but I am unfortunately out of time. I will pause to say that Equilibrium and Batman aside, it was Christian's love of Spirited Away by Hayao Miyazoki (my favorite anime along with Miyazoki's Princess Mononoke) and his subsequent desire to play the voice of Howl in the English dubbing of Howl's Moving Castle that moved him firmly from character crush material to an actor I want to see succeed in all things to come. :)

Now, onto the pictures.

Enjoy.

Of Course Batman Cleans Up Well